A Gundam Christmas
by Epyon Zero
Summary: The GW gang goes to Relena's for Christmas. Please R
1. Christmas is Almost here

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the rights to Gundam Wing¸ or its affiliates, that honor belongs to  
Sotsu, Sunrise, ANB and some other brilliant people so please don't sue me cause I'm poor.   
  
  
A Gundam Christmas  
by: Epyon Zero  
  
  
Part one: The Gathering of Old Friends  
  
  
A quiet snowfall blanketed the ground, and the light tones of Christmas carols could be heard  
on the wind. Relena Peacecraft/Darlain gazed out of a bay window in her room and let out a  
contented sigh. "Christmas will be here soon, I can't wait to see all the others again" she thought to  
herself. No sooner had the thought left her mind than she heard a knocking on the door. "Who is  
it?" she called. "Miss Relena, please come downstairs, there are visitors here to see you." Pagan,  
her butler replied. "Just a sec Pagan, I'll be right out. I wonder who it could be?"   
  
  
Coming down the staircase the first thing Relena saw was a flash of black and brown before  
she was tackled. "Relena! Merry Christmas!!!" Duo Maxwell yelled as he embraced her in a  
Gundam strength hug. "Duo, Duo. DUO GET OFF ME NOW!!" Relena screamed. "Oh jeez  
sorry." After getting up off the floor Relena turned and gave Hilde a hug. "Sorry about Duo  
Relena, he got away from me." Hilde blushed a bit, embarrassed at how childish her boyfriend was  
being. "Forget about it, anyway if your lucky maybe Duo will get a dog collar from Santa." Both  
girls got a chuckle out of this. Halfway across the room Duo turned and look accusingly at the  
pair. "Are you making fun of me again?" he asked.   
  
  
"So is anybody else here yet?" Hilde asked as Relena motioned to her to sit down. "Not yet,  
you're the first to arrive. Milliardo and Noin will be here later tonight, and everybody else will be  
along tomorrow." Relena replied. Just then Duo bolted in, and looking at Relena shouted "Our  
ROOM here is bigger than our HOUSE home!" Hilde grabbed the excited pilot and dragged him  
down toward a sofa. "That's lovely Duo, now why don't you sit and CALM DOWN a bit."   
  
  
"I'm actually glad that you're here first Duo" Relena said. "Why's that Relena?" Hilde inquired.  
"Because, you can help me put up decorations." Relena looked over at Duo and smiled sweetly.   
Duo groaned and slumped back. If his room was any indication, Relena had a HUGE house and  
he'd be at that most of the day. Still . . . it meant that HE had time to get to know the layout  
before everyone else showed up. That could prove handy . . .   
  
  
A new day dawned and right off the bat Duo was eating. Down in the kitchen he was sitting in  
front of a plate of pancakes four feet high, and by the look of things that was just the beginning.   
Seated around the table, and trying not to be sick watching Duo, the food black hole, eat were  
Quatre, Trowa, Wufei, and Heero Yuy. Relena came in and everyone greeted her with a pleasant  
"Hi Relena" with the exception of Duo and Heero. Duo because he was too busy shoveling food  
into his face, and Heero, well he just looked up at her and went back to his coffee. Relena sighed.  
"Why am I even expecting a response from Heero anyway?" "It's not like he'd give one."   
  
  
Also seated around the large table were Sally Po, Catherine, Dorothy Catalonia and Hilde, but  
they seemed to be having a conversation and not paying attention to the men at the other end,  
except for Hilde who occasionally glanced over to make sure that Duo wasn't chocking. Just as  
she got herself a cup of coffee and a Danish, her brother walked in arm and arm with Lucrezia  
Noin. As Relena looked at the couple, she noticed something, but she just couldn't put her finger  
on it. Hilde however, did pick up on it. "Is that what I think it is on Zechs' hand or am I  
hallucinating?" Narrowing her eyes, Relena now saw what she was taking about. "Oh my God, I  
think you're right, I think my brother and Noin got married!!" Upon hearing the word "married"  
everyone's heads shot up and glanced around. After Noin started to blush, nine pairs of eyes were  
glued on her and Zechs.  
  
Then everyone rushed over and began to pepper the pair with questions. Again the only  
absentee was Heero who thought to himself "What's the big deal. So they got married. Why the  
hell did I come here anyway?" At this point a little voice in head that vaguely sounded like Duo  
said "Because you wanted to see them all again, especially Relena. Admit it you baka. You miss  
them!" Heero never answered because he got up right then and there and left the room.  
"Wonder what's with him?" Duo asked himself, downing the remains of the pancakes and taking  
off after his best friend.   
  
  
Part two: The Gang's All Here  
  
After the initial furor over Zechs and Noin had quieted down everybody joined Heero and Duo  
in the living room, which was basically a ballroom with furniture. The entire palace was decked  
out in Christmas finery, garlands, bows, lights, mistletoe, the only thing missing was a tree. "Ok  
all that we have left to get is a tree. I'd like to thank Duo and Hilde for helping me decorate." At  
Relena's mention of Duo decorating the other pilots and guests nervously glanced around and  
then at Duo. "What!!! It's not like I did anything to the decorations." Duo defensively shot back at  
the group.  
  
"Getting back to the tree we need a tree that's a minimum of 50 feet high if we want it to look  
respectable." "Fifty feet! No offense Relena, but where are we gonna find a tree this big and how  
will we get it in here." Duo exclaimed. "He has a point Relena, trees that size don't grow just  
anywhere." Quatre put in. "I'll handle this one Relena, since I can remember some Christmases  
here." Milliardo stood up and swept a hand around the room. "On the first point of where to get a  
tree, about 15 kilometers from here there's a forest with evergreen trees at least twice the size we  
need. Second my parents had this room modified to hold a tree that size. There's a hidden cargo  
elevator under the floor that we can use to bring the tree up" he concluded. "That's great Zechs  
but we still don't have a way to cut down the tree and get it here." Duo muttered.  
  
  
Milliardo glared at Duo for interrupting him. "I was getting to that Maxwell. In the hanger  
under the palace there are five old Mobile suits that the family kept for cutting down trees. That's  
how we're going to get a tree. Satisfied Duo?" From the look on Zechs' face if Duo said no he'd  
be walking to get a tree. "Yeah . . . yeah that's fine. We'll take the suits and go get a tree." "Can I  
come?" Relena asked. "NO!" Both Heero and Zechs looked at each other, both having said the  
exact same thing. "Why not?" Relena pouted. "I'll go with Heero, he's a great pilot and besides it's  
not like we're going into a war zone or anything, we're just going to go get a Christmas tree." At  
the thought of his baby sister getting into a confined Mobile Suit cockpit with Heero Yuy  
Milliardo was ready to kill, but then he caught the look on Relena's face. It was one of those sad  
puppy dog looks that melted past every barrier, including common sense. "Fine, you can go, it is  
Christmas after all." Relena's face lit up and she gave her brother a hug and sped of for the hanger.  
  
  
Zechs then caught Heero by the arm and spun him around. "Yuy if anything, and I mean  
ANYTHING, happens to Relena you'll regret ever being born." Heero just took this in stride and   
headed off for the hanger on Relena's heels. Having seen and heard the entire discussion Noin  
walked over and slipped an arm around her husband. "Getting paranoid in our old age are we?"  
she asked with a smile. Zechs turned and looked at his wife, the smallest of grins visible on his  
lips. "No, just overprotective. No matter where he goes or what he does my sister follows that  
suicidal psychopath everywhere. What's more he doesn't seem to care or notice." "Oh believe me"  
Noin grinned "He notices her. I've heard some stories about just how much he notices her."   
  
"Lucrezia you'd better tell me what your talking about or I'll go track him down in Tallgeese  
III." Noin then proceeded to tell her husband the story of what happened when Heero had first  
met Relena, and what had happened at the naval base. "He did WHAT! I'll kill him . . . " Milliardo  
exploded. He now seriously began to head after the pair until his wife dragged him back."Zechs.  
Zechs sit down will you. She'll be fine. That was along time ago. Heero would rather die than  
cause her harm now." "All right, all right" Milliardo fumed. "But if she comes back with so much  
as a sniffle I'll track that boy down and personally nail him to a wall."   
  
  
Part three: Antics in the Snow   
  
Heero moved the Leo through the ankle-deep snow quickly making up for lost ground. Even  
though he had Relena riding shotgun he still managed to keep his mind on his mission. Mostly.  
Every few seconds his eyes would discreetly wander up and down her lithe frame, picking out  
points of interest. "I have to focus. Relena is a friend and NOTHING MORE." he berated  
himself. Still he couldn't help but notice that Relena had matured since he'd last seen her. Less  
than 6 inches almost the exact same thought we're running through Relena's mind. "I have to say  
something to him, if I don't I'm going to go insane." "Heero" she said "How far behind the others  
are we?" "Not very far" Heero replied. "The scanner says that there's a suit about 200 yards in  
front of us. Relena, thank you for the comment earlier about my piloting skill." Relena nearly did  
a double take to make sure she was talking to the same Heero Yuy. "No . . . no problem Heero. I  
was stating what's true." "Everyone knows that your one of the best Mobile Suit pilots whoever  
lived. Even my brother says it and that takes . . . " Relena never got to finish the sentence, because  
just that second the Leo was struck by a massive physical impact and headed for the ground.   
  
  
"Yes, Bull's-eye! Score one for Shinigami!" Duo crowed as he watched the giant snowball nail  
Heero's Leo and drop it to the ground. "Hey I even surprised him, I wonder if that had something  
to do with his passenger." Seeing the suit starting to stir Duo decided that he didn't want to be in  
visual range when Heero got back up. Come to think of it, he didn't want to be in the same  
country, so he tore of after Quatre, Trowa and Wufei.  
  
Heero realized two things as the ringing in his head diminished. First he was going to strangle  
Duo when he got a hold of him. Only Duo would be childish enough to hit a Mobile Suit with a  
giant snowball. The second thing was that there was that Relena had somehow ended up in his  
lap pinning him down. "Uh . . . My head, what was that?" Relena murmured as she came around.  
"Heero what's . . . " Just then Relena realized where she was, wrapped around Heero pinning him  
to his seat. She blushed fiercely as she untangled herself and got back in her seat. Even though  
he'd never consciously admit it, Heero now had another good reason for slaughtering Duo.  
Righting the Leo Heero half turned and told Relena to "Hold on." Then he pulled the beam saber  
from its socket and hit the burners chasing after Duo. Relena took one quick look at Heero and  
leaned back. He'd zoned out everything else, his face set in a stony mask. His Prussian blue eyes  
were like chips of ice. Besides she could bet what was rolling around in Heero's head, one simple  
phrase, "Omae o Korosu"  
  
Wufei was the first to notice that Duo was catching up to them. "Maxwell" he called over the  
comm "What exactly have you been up too?" The reply took a few seconds. "Uh . . . Would you  
believe that I hit Heero and Relena with a giant snowball." Wufei smacked his palm against his  
forehead, his face contorted in a grimace. "Only YOU Maxwell are childish enough to hit a  
Mobile Suit with a snowball. Especially when Yuy is in that Suit." "You do realize that Heero's  
probably going to tear your arms off Duo." Quatre piped in. "Uh . . . never thought of that one."  
was Duo's only reply.   
  
No sooner had Duo gotten these words out of his mouth when he saw Heero's Leo zooming  
towards him with the saber out and ready. "Dammit!" Duo shouted to himself. "Heero had to take  
the suit that had weapons didn't he." Heero meanwhile was thinking of what would be more  
enjoyable, dismembering Duo's Leo or just dismembering Duo. He was just about ready for either  
when he felt a hand land on his shoulder. "Heero, leave him be." Relena said softly, "Duo was  
only having a little fun, besides I think you've scared him enough." Heero's brows furrowed in  
frustration, when Relena took that tone she always managed to get past his defenses no matter  
what. "Fine" was all that Heero was able to mutter before he turned the Suit and swung the saber  
bearing arm down towards Duo.   
  
Duo squeezed his 2 eyes shut, preparing to meet God face to face. After a few seconds he  
cracked one eye than the other. 'Waa. . . I'm still alive." Duo whispered "I was sure Heero was  
gonna gut me." Duo then double-checked to make sure he was all there and t hen he heard Quatre  
over the comm. 'Come on, snap out of it Duo we have to get this tree back to Relena's." Turning  
on the scanner Duo noticed that not less than a foot from where he was there was a felled tree just  
the height they needed. Shrugging off what had just happened Duo grabbed the tail end of the tree  
and the 5 suits began to head back to Relena's.   
  



	2. Christmas is Upon us

Disclaimer: Same as last time. I don't own Gundam Wing ¸ even though I wish I did, so don't sue me cause I'm poor.   
A Gundam Christmas   
  
by: Epyon Zero   
  
Part four: Hang the Stockings and Trim the Tree  
  
  
It took the small group about half the time to get back as it did to go in, mainly due to the fact that no one wanted to be around Heero, who was still simmering somewhat from Duo's snowball. When the five had gotten the tree into the bay and onto the elevator they shut down the Leos and started to head upstairs.   
  
  
Duo was the last one to get out, owing the fact that Heero had parked his Leo next to his and Duo didn't really want to push his luck twice in one day. As they headed for the elevator to go back upstairs Quatre noticed something with Duo's Leo. "Duo" he asked "Was there a cut on the arm of your Leo before we left?" "No Quatre, why you asking?" "Because" Quatre said pointing to the left arm "There is now." Duo twirled around and looked at the arm and then at Heero then back again. 'He . . . he . . . he could've killed me." With that nothing more was said.   
  
  
By the time Duo had recovered from his shock all five pilots and Relena were upstairs and looking at the tree.   
  
  
Milliardo turned to the group and said admiringly "This tree is excellent, it's just right. Relena did you pick it out." Relena shook her head before she responded "No, Heero did" leaving out the parts about the snowball and her falling on Heero because she suspected that if her brother heard that he'd probably kill both pilots, Duo for throwing the snowball, and Heero because, well because her brother still didn't trust Heero.   
  
A few seconds of silence passed before Noin called "Come on, lets get this thing decorated!"  
With that everyone took some decorations and a section of the tree. Duo and Hilde took two boxes of glass ornaments and started to hang them. Heero and Relena were trimming the tree in tinsel. Milliardo and Noin put the tree skirt down and straightened up the furniture. Due to the fact that they were the ones most used to heights, Trowa and Catherine strung the lights round the tree. Quatre was passing Trowa up strings of lights as he needed then. Sally and Dorothy had a box of Christmas stockings with everybody's name on it and they were hanging then over the massive mantlepiece.   
  
This would be your typical Christmas scene, except for the fact that there were quick glances being thrown about the room every couple of minutes. Heero and Relena kept glancing at each other when they each though the other wasn't looking. Milliardo was throwing them looks to make sure Heero was behaving around his sister. Duo was cautiously peering at Heero, in between kissing Hilde, to make sure he wouldn't attack him. Perhaps the strangest of all was Quatre and Dorothy. Each glanced at the other for utterly separate reasons. Quatre, because Dorothy was close to the poker, which was kinda like a fencing foil . . . and Dorothy was glancing over at Quatre and sizing him up like a shank of meat.   
  
  
Duo was the only one who picked up on this last one though. 'What's the deal THERE?" he thought. "Last I heard those two didn't get along at all. Speaking of which, who invited Dorothy anyway? Oh well I'll figure that out later." With these thoughts and a few about Hilde rolling around his head Duo got back to work.   
  
  
  
Part five: Twas the Night Before Christmas  
  
  
The appetite that everyone had worked up decorating the tree was impressive, even by the highest standard they had, Duo. The least amount eaten was four plates and Relena ate that. Duo, of course, ate the most. He had eight and a half plates of food and only stopped because there wasn't enough left.   
  
  
Clearing the dishes everyone moved out into the living room to mingle and bask in Christmas spirit and the beautifully appointed tree. Once there people split up and conversations started, some normal some very unlikely. The normal ones were Trowa and Catherine, who were talking about what they would do next year at the circus, and Wufei and Sally, who were arguing, as usual.   
  
  
The other conversations were odd ranging from mild too extreme. The mildly odd conversation was between Noin, Hilde, and Relena, who were trading stories and points about their respective husband, boyfriend, and hoped for boyfriend.   
  
The extremely odd conversations were about the Zero system. Dorothy had somehow convinced Quatre to talk to her about his experience with the mind-warping system. Relena picked up on this from the corner of her eye and lightly smiled. "Who knew" she thought "That Quatre could have that kind of an effect on Dorothy. This is the first time that I've seen her this relaxed, ever."   
It was probably a good thing that she didn't notice the other conversation, which was between her brother and Heero because she would've been tempted to go over and see what they were talking about. The topic of said conversation was on the similarities and differences between the Zero system of Wing Zero and Epyon. Noin however did see it and inwardly smiled to herself. "If those two can bury the hatchet, it'll be the best to happen to Relena in a long time. They both care for her more than they'll ever admit to and it's caused some friction so far."   
  
  
The only person missing was Duo, whom everybody figured had gone looking for something to eat. That however, wasn't what he was doing. He'd crept up to his room and gotten a little something he'd whipped up to amuse himself over Christmas.   
  
  
What he'd done was to get an old fishing pole, a hook, and a piece of mistletoe and combine them, so that he had mistletoe on a string, that he could move around and catch people under it. He also had a camcorder to record those captured for posterity, and of course something that he could drag out every once and a while for a laugh. With these in hand Duo made his way to the balustrade overlooking the entire room. "Now" Duo muttered to himself, "Who's my first victim going to be?" Glancing down he saw several possible targets. First: Heero and Relena. Duo eliminated them right off because Heero would hang him if he even tried it. Second: Zechs and Noin. Duo ruled then out too for the same reason he ruled out Heero, personal safety. Trowa and Catherine? Well Duo wasn't really tempted to go there. . . That left Duo with 2 possible targets worth his interest, Wufei and Quatre. He decided to get Wufei first.   
  
  
Wufei was in a fairly cross mood. Not only had he seen Maxwell make a complete idiot out of himself for the entire day, now he couldn't be seen and that worried the Chinese boy somewhat, due to Duo's character. "What sort of mischief is that baka planning?" No sooner did Wufei finish this thought than he felt Sally tug his arm. 'What do you want woman?" When he looked at her Wufei had a sudden feeling of dread. "Look Wufei"she crooned "It's a piece of mistletoe. You do know the tradition if your under a piece of mistletoe?" The Chinese pilot slowly backed away shaking his head. "Oh no, I'm not fulfilling some deluded "Tradition" merely for you, you. . ." Wufei didn't get to finish because Sally grabbed him and pulled him for a quick passionate kiss.   
For about 2 seconds Wufei looked like he was enjoying himself, then he reverted back to his normal self. Giving Sally a shove into the wall he stormed off muttering curses, and blaming the entire thing on Duo. Sally had a bemused smirk on he face. Duo meanwhile was biting his fist to keep from laughing. "Oh that was priceless! The look on Wu-man's face, everything." At this point Duo fell against the wall and started to laugh uncontrollably.   
  
  
  
After 5 minutes he had recovered most of his composure and went looking for Quatre and Dorothy. He found them leaned against a wall next to the parlor door. Duo dropped his line just as the pair started to move.   
  
  
Dorothy noticed the little ball of mistletoe before Quatre did. Duo could vaguely hear her mention something about mistletoe being deadly if you ate it. "It figures." Duo though to himself 'The war is long over and she still thinks about death. What the hell does Quatre see in her anyway."   
  
  
Duo snapped out of his thoughts in time to witness what happened next. The pair glanced at each other for a few seconds and then with some kind of mental acknowledgment they started kissing. 'Well look at that, maybe Quatre did melt her after all. Jeez look at them." By now the pair was leaning against a wall, utterly engaged in the movement of each others lips. "That's inhuman." Duo muttered "Don't they have to come up for air or something?" Quatre and Dorothy continued on in this manner or about another two minutes and then they broke away. After a few seconds they both blinked once or twice and turned away high tailing it to different parts of the house, both blushing a deep shade of red.   
  
  
Duo knew that he'd just seen something incredible. The only problem was that he couldn't tell anybody for 2 reasons. First he doubted anybody would believe him, second Dorothy might take offense and Duo didn't really want to piss her off. Packing away his things Duo decided to head for the kitchen, after all he was still hungry. As Duo made his way to the kitchen a dark shape detached itself from the wall. Heero watched the retreating shape of Duo's back and grinned to himself that Duo was lucky he didn't have his gun handy, because from this angle he was the perfect target.   
  
  
  
Part Six: On Christmas Day   
  
  
  
Christmas Day struck the Peacecraft mansion like an elemental force. This force however had a name, Duo. The normally hyper pilot was in overdrive as he ran around the house rousing everyone screaming "It's CHRISTMAS!" at the top of his lungs. Several people took being woken up in this manner negatively and by the time he had woken everyone up Duo was fleeing for is life from Heero, Milliardo, and Wufei, who were running after him with murder in their eyes and guns and a sword in their hands. Duo bolted down the stairs with his would be assassins hot on his tail. He was saved from being killed by Relena, who reminded the 3 of "Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Men."   
  
  
Walking into the ballroom the entire ensemble was amazed at the amount of gifts. There was literally a small mountain of them. Duo's eyes were about the size of dinner plates as he gazed upon the bounty. "Oh man." he breathed "Would you look at the size of this haul." The others just nodded and sat down were they could.  
Duo was right ready to tear everyone of his gifts open then and there, but Hilde pulled him down explaining at "Since it's Relena's house lets let her go first." Glumly nodding Duo resigned himself to watching, for now.   
  
  
Relena sat down as her brother passed her he first gift, which incidentally, was his. Opening the paper Relena removed a black satin box and opened it to reveal a string of the finest pearls. "Oh, Milliardo, you shouldn't have." she exclaimed. "They belonged to our Mother. Pagan kept for safekeeping and I felt that you should have them." was his reply. Jumping up Relena gave her brother a hug and then let him put them on. "Miss Relena" Pagan said from across the room "You look just like your mother with those on." Blushing Relena sat down and reached for the next gift. It was something large wrapped in golden paper. It was from all the Gundam pilots, save Heero. That saddened Relena deeply. "Is he so out of touch that he can't even buy presents." she thought before opening the gift. It was a large silver plaque with a verse inscribed in gold lettering "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be recognized as children of God." "Thank you, all of you, this means a lot." Answering for all four pilots Quatre merely said "Its true." Relena's next present was from the girls and was a one week pass for an all expense stay at a health spa. "Have fun Relena, there's a lot of cute guys there." Hilde called. Relena blushed at this comment. "Is that all?" Duo asked rudely, for which he got several punches from Wufei. "There's one left for Relena" Noin called lifting a massive present.   
  
  
Milliardo went over to help is wife, who was struggling to lift the gift when he saw who the tag. "To: Relena From: Heero." That stopped him cold as he pictured what the gift might be. Visions of bombs, a gun rack and other various implements of death floated through his head before Heero's monotone voice cut in. "Don't worry, its nothing dangerous." At this everyone's jaws nearly hit the floor. HEERO bought RELENA a present?? This was almost too much.   
  
  
  
Author's Note: This isn't finished yet. I'm putting up this section now to appease you who've been waiting. It would've been up earlier but I've been insanely busy.   
Any comments, suggestions, whatever, email me at: Gundam_Epyon_Zero@gundammail.com 


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